Leaving issues for daylight shift

[rnto?]

I've been a supervisor at a SubAcute/LTC facility for the past 2 years. 2 months ago I became a night supervisor (after returning from maternity leave). Since I started as supervisor i've been told by the don/adon that non-emergent issues on off-shifts can wait until office hours to be handled by the physician. i've never had a problem determining what i needed to call on on an off shift vs what could be handled during office hours. recently one of the night turn nurses has been questioning this policy-specifically, she states I should call the MD for every single change in condition at 12am, even if the patient is stable and the change in condition is not emergent. i cannot find anything about the legal issues surrounding this. is it acceptable to wait until day turn to notify the md that, for example, mr. smith has increased edema but no other abnormal assessment findings. or jane doe has a cough but no fever, not in distress, etc? ADon told me yes, because the facility is 'thier home' and at home non-emergent issues would be handled during office hours. generally if the patient is stable w/ a minor issue and/or te appropriate treatment couldn't be started to daylight anyway, i defer.

[DizzyLizzyNurse]

I have had a situation where the night shift nurse had made a med error at 0500, her shift didn't end until 0730 and I the 1st shift nurse ended up having to call the doc. That is the type of thing I don't want saved for me, 0700 isn't the middle of the night and everyone should take responsibility for their own actions. I've also ran into med issues where the 24 hr pharmacy line could have been called at night too. I know that not all night shift nurses hide from work but I have ran across a few that do and mabey the nurse refferred to in the initial post is complaining about that kind of situation. I would hope no one would expect you to call for a sneeze in the middle of the night.

We do office hours too and 0700 would be too early to call the MD for something that's not an emergency.